On July 11th, 2011, I will undergo radical surgery to change my life. I am having a sleeve gastrectomy performed. During this laparoscopic surgery, around 75% of my stomach will be removed, creating a “sleeve” or banana shape organ in place of my current stomach. Effectively, this will limit the amount of food that I will be able to eat to an entrée size meal. Permanently. This blog is my journey as I literally shrink.

Thursday, 2 August 2012

One Year On

Well, well, well... One year on and how things have changed. My last post announced that I was, in fact, pregnant after experiencing continued chronic tiredness, nausea and just general shitty-ness. I know you all think you are soooooo clever for picking it up before I did and I applaud you. In retrospect I don't know how I didn't put two and two together, dur!

I haven't blogged since then because I felt that my experience had changed from weight loss to pregnancy. And I didn't start writing a blog about pregnancy so I didn't want to continue to blog. That, and I was so bloody tired and busy that I really didn't have time to scratch myself!! I am pleased to report that I have finally given birth to that little bundle of joy. A little girl, Mae, who was born on the 27th of June. Life has now been flipped on its head and I struggle to maintain a train of thought or basic conversation. But let's see how I go! I know there will be a few people who are interested in what pregnancy was like with a sleeve so I will add a little bit in this post. But the main purpose is to post a photo.

I had my school photo taken 3 weeks before I had surgery last year. I was officially at my heaviest ever so it is a good indication of where I was at. Just before I had my baby I had the annual photo taken again. Although I was 37 weeks pregnant (and quite puffy by that stage) it is clear to see how much weight I had lost. About 30kg give or take a few kg's. Amazing! The photo is almost a year to the day since the last one. My loving and supportive husband has (adoringly?) pointed out that before the surgery I looked a lot like I had "a box head". A term that, while I agree is accurate, it's not attractive. So there you go. I am now even lighter still. I dropped about 12kg within 3 weeks of having Mae. That is 4kg of baby, 1kg roughly of placenta and the rest I assume is fluid and other pregnancy stuff! The photo is far from overly attractive but (aside from the puffy eyes) is a great visual! I still have a way to go until I reach my ideal weight but hopefully this will fall off over the next 12 months as I learn to run around after a baby!!

Basic about being pregnant with a sleeve: While my pregnancy was "textbook" and progressed normally, I was constantly hungry. And hungry for simple carbs that would give me the instant energy boost I needed. Going from not eating much in a meal to wanting to eat every half an hour or so confused the hell out of my brain which had gone from "eat everything in sight" to "good luck getting all that in" and back to "eat something again, now!". But I did get used to it and (despite my cravings to eat lollies, bread, chocolate and cakes) I did try to eat some nutritious foods. Almonds were a staple for me to keep my blood sugar levels level. Oh, and frozen coke. I couldn't live without multiple frozen cokes every week. I would trip anyone who stood in my way. I'm not even joking. If it was frozen and sweet, I wanted it. As well as taking Elevit (pregnancy multivitamin), I also had to take B12 and calcium tablets. Later in the pregnancy I also had to start taking Iron supplements because I found I was anemic. I passed the glucose test (for gestational diabetes) with flying colours. I was quite concerned about it because I was eating large quantities of sugar in any form. I was also concerned that I wouldn't be able to drink the amount of liquid required. I didn't need to worry. Easy peasy. It was only 200mL and not too fizzy. I also became a baking queen. Pre-pregnancy I could find my way around a sara lee cake but I hated the idea of cooking one of my own. About 16 weeks into it, I suddenly had an overwhelming urge to bake. Every Sunday I would get up and whip up some delicious cake, slice or muffin. I would then have a piece and either distribute to the neighbours or take it to work. Very popular I was. Very. This lasted right to the end of my pregnancy and to a small degree it has continued. During pregnancy the amount of food you can eat diminishes the more room the baby takes up. I thought I had already been generous giving the baby the extra room the removed stomach had occupied, however, I did find that I couldn't drink as much as I had been able to. Otherwise I really didn't notice much difference in the quantities I could consume. I didn't suffer from reflux at all during the pregnancy. Mae was born with enough hair to perm so there goes that old wives tale!!! The only other thing that I can think of that is pregnancy related is post birth, while I was in hospital. I. Was. Starving. AAAAALLLLLLLL the time. I found myself eating ridiculous amounts of food (considering my situation). I felt full for days, but all I wanted to do was eat! I assume that it was my body replenishing itself after the labour but it was ridiculous!

Thanks to all the people who have continued to not only support and encourage me, but read, check up on and demand more blog posts! I will try to update a little more regularly and hopefully we can move from pregnancy back to weight loss.